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The complex relationship between Islam and the West has come to occupy centre stage in the analysis of contemporary international relations, especially since the events of September 11. However, much that has been written on the subject tends to oscillate between sweeping accounts of geopolitical and cultural or religious themes on the one hand and detailed empirical examination of this or that conflict on the other. Too little attention has been paid to the juxtaposition of Europe and the United States in relation to Islam, and what this has to tell us about the current political and cultural trajectory of the West. This is precisely the focus of this Special Issue of International Politics .1
The relationship with the Muslim world may be understood in part as a litmus test of the changing geopolitical and cultural landscape within the West. Our working hypothesis is that the 'West', and more specifically the transatlantic political community (Kanet, 2008), understood in terms of social fabric as much as geostrategic balance, is being profoundly shaped - more so than even some of the better contemporary commentary (Esposito, 1999; Halliday, 2002; Aydin 2004) would suggest - by perceptions of and attitudes to Islam.
The concept of the 'West' as civilisational category has arguably been strengthened by the reappearance of a certain discourse on Islam, much of it inspired by the rising incidence of 'Islamic' terrorism directed principally against western targets (Kepel, 2004), which is said to provide a strategic frame of reference for political action with respect to the Muslim world. However, it would appear that the Euro-American political community has entered a deep crisis as much in its self-understanding as in its geopolitical structure, precisely in its complex ideational and material relationship with the multifaceted 'world of Islam'.
The West's relationship with the world of Islam requires, therefore, careful disentangling of threads that are often woven together in unhelpful ways. Specifically, it requires consideration of three key themes: first, the political and cultural heterogeneity of both Islam and the West (here we have in mind the plurality of attitudes and policies to be found within Europe and other parts of the West, including the United States); second, the complex relationship between state and civil society that lies at...